'Downton Debrief': Has the shark been jumped?

Killing off a major character? Great. All for it. More series should be so bold.

But if a show takes such a step - even if forced to because the actor's movie schedule requires them to leave - it at least needs to give the character an ending that isn't daytime soap opera-level silly.

Sadly, poor Lady Sybil got no such send-off from "Downton Abbey" Sunday night, as she said her farewell in a tragic and tragically awful scene.

Cleared of charges for a revolutionary act but banished from Ireland, Lady Sybil and her ex-chauffeur husband had camped out at Downton to await the birth of their child. When the big day arrived, Lady Sybil found herself attended to by two physicians, the snooty Sir Phillip and the kindly but middle-class Dr. Clarkson.

When Sybil went into labor, Dr. Clarkson diagnosed pre-eclampsia and suggested a Caesarean; Sir Philip disagreed. This split the Crawleys into two camps, with plebian Tom and American-born Lady Grantham on Clarkson's side and Lord Grantham, of course, siding with the titled doctor.

As the earl was picking up the bills, he declared the right to make the decision, and it proved to be the wrong one.

The death certainly underscored a key theme of the series: the nobility defending its importance against the rise of the untitled middle class - often with disastrous results.

But the death scene was a mess, a silly tableau that might have been pulled from an episode of "All My Children." Tom and the weepy sisters and mother ringed the bed in pefect-camera ready order while the earl and the doctors stood brooding in the background.

"There's nothing that can be done," one of them said, and the pair did exactly that, doing nothing to aid or comfort Lady Sybil, even when she stopped breathing after one seizure. (And yes, artificial respiration was around long before the 1920s.) It was left to the women to try to revive her, which the did by urging her to "Breathe, Sybil." Oh, yes, dear Sybil, do breathe, won't you.

The characters took their proper turns in weeping at the outcome, while in the background, the earl, who cried profusely upon losing his wife's fortune, looked as disturbed as he might if had forgotten to wind his pocket watch.

Sadly, it was not the first time this season that an episode of "Downton Abbey" produced a major scene that was silly at best or laughably bad at worst, and it has come time to declare the show as dead as poor Lady Sybil.

"Downton Abbey" was intended to be a one-season show, and that one season was great. Its popularity demanded a second season. That was not nearly as good as the first, but was still watchable - and perhaps we gave creator Julian Fellowes a pass for having to convert a miniseries into an ongoing one.

But season three feels like a semester project written the night before it was due. There might be some good ideas there, but they are lost in a fog of character inconsistencies, cliches, offscreen action and ludicrous plot twists that come out of nowhere.

So Jessica Brown Findlay won't be around for season four? Bully for her.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.